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Dinosaur news

I can’t personally attest to having seen 30 of the beasts but Diplodocus, Triceratops, Spinosaurus, Velociraptor and, of course, T-Rex were among those we saw on display.

Having walked along the sweeping entrance road into Osterley Park and around the lake, we were directed to the left of the house (a grand and impressive neo-classical mansion) where we entered Jurassic Kingdom under a pillared archway – not unlike that seen at Jurassic Park in the movie of the same name, except without doors, much smaller in size and therefore incapable of containing T-Rex and his mates for very long at all…

As for the animatronic dinosaurs themselves – yes, they do have “arms moving up and down, tails swaying side-to-side, heads moving up and down, eyes blinking and jaws opening wide with roaring sound effects”. My 15-month-old boy was particularly enamoured/startled by the latter of those when we came across two caged raptors.

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The dinosaurs were impressive, albeit that I’ve never actually seen any other similar animatronics to which to really compare them. Giving the installations the effect of actually breathing – and the scaly exterior ‘skin’ moving and being manipulated in tandem with the breathing and roaring – was a nice touch.

A Jurassic Kingdom dinosaur roaming the streets of London

The majority of the models came with an information board, detailing the dinosaur’s name and meaning, its size and the geologic period it dates from. And yes, I did learn something myself. Apparently, Dilophosaurus may not have spat venom or been endowed with a frill around its neck – unlike the one seen in Jurassic Park, which ultimately did for dodgy computer programmer Dennis Nedry, who got his just deserts for taking a bribe to steal some of the fictional park’s embryos.

Signs at Jurassic Kingdom also said: “Do not touch the dinosaurs, they’re hungry.”

Did that stop all the dino-enraptured (enraptored?) youngsters from reaching out and grabbing hold? Of course not!

I guess after a while it can become a case of ‘just another dinosaur’ for the adults, but the kids were engaged and entertained. They also had Osterley Park’s own rope swings and ‘climb chime’ (climb a tree, ring a bell) to try out.

(Image: PUBLICITY PICTURE)

Apart from the dinosaurs, Jurassic Kingdom also offered an ‘excavation scene’, where young palaeontologists could discover and dig up dinosaur bones.

The sandpit was busy and looked like it was being enjoyed and well used.

The ‘education marquee’ was disappointing though. It was basically a huddle of fold-up chairs where you could watch dinosaur documentaries on a projection screen you could barely see.

This part felt lazy. Kids can watch that sort of thing anytime they like these days.

Sure, the education side of Jurassic Kingdom may well have been “endorsed” by a leading palaeontologist – to include work sheets handed out to visiting school groups – but what about youngsters just going with their parents and families?

If you’re going to include educational activities at an attraction like this, then it’s got to be something the children can actually ‘do’ and be engaged with.

Even some crayons and dinosaur colouring-in books would have done the job! Jurassic Kingdom could take a leaf out of the National Trust’s book on this point – they’re masters at it.

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Jurassic Kingdom

There was one little nod to gore at the end of the tour, with a couple of raptors jumping all over a larger beast and leaving it with torn flesh and gaping wounds. Most kids are no doubt well aware of the savage side of dinosaur legend. Just wait until they watch the Jurassic Park scene where that bloke gets unceremoniously ripped off the toilet seat and gobbled up by T-Rex. Why do I always go to that part of the film?